StephaniePearlMcPhee
patreon
Victory is mine.
🕑 Added 2023-09-28 15:14:37 +0000 UTCFinally, last night at about 10:30, right when I was ready to give up entirely, a worm moulted, and I was right there to film it. The video could be better quality, but the lighting wasn't great since the wee beastie waited until cover of darkness to get it done. To give you an idea of how fast slipping their little skins is, I did speed this video up, but only to make it a bit less boring for you. I sped it up X2, so "for real life" (as Elliot would say) it took a total of about five minutes. No wonder I was able to miss so many!
Also interesting, usually their faces pop off first - like a mask, and then they shed the body skin. In this picture you can see the freshly emerged worm, their slipped skin, attached to the parchment with a bit of silk, and their "mask" on.
This one's face stayed on until the end, and then came off while I was taking a picture.
So there you go, and honestly I couldn't be any happier that it finally worked out, and I did get a fair bit done on a sweater.
See you soon,
Stephanie
Comments
They’re so much bigger! Must be squished like an accordion in there before the moult. So cool to get to see and learn all this!!
Interesting there's a section of the "torso" that's devoid of legs, whereas there seem to be legs attached at each segment in other parts of the body. I can't imagine the energy expenditure needed for this process.
So cool how every instar looks somewhat different--I've noticed that when we've raised butterfly caterpillars too...
